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After a month in Ghana I have had my share of good and bad ethnic food to try. I've eaten a lot of things off the streets and been spoiled at my house where Fati cooks delicious meals for all the picky westerners. The Ghanaian diet consists mostly of fried starches with burn your mouth spice with the major parts of a meal usually consisting of rice or yams and a red sauce. There certainly aren't as many food varieties here as I'm used to at home and I've found that rice can get a bit boring when eaten everyday. But I have found some delicous foods that I will miss when I'm at home. Plantains are one of my favorite things to eat off the streets. They can be fried, which makes them soft and sweet, or grilled. Since plantains taste very similar to bananas it is kind of like eating dessert, only it's much more filling and I can feel kind of healthy about it. I also really love koose, a ball of bean fibers and vegetables that is fried, of course. It has the consistency of a hush puppy and can be mild to really spicy depending on who is making it. Jollof rice is another stable of the diet here and it is basically spicy rice served with some form of coleslaw. I'm not sure on what spice they use, but it might be some kind of curry. Many people sell groundnuts on the street as well. They taste very similar to peanuts, but are darker in color. Fried yams are another one of my street food favorites. They are cut into chunks, fried and served with a flavorful, and spicy, red sauce. Just yesterday I tried some new street food. A girl was walking by with a box on her head full of what looked like cookies (most small street food is sold from the top of someone's head). I stopped her and bought one only to find out ther were some kind of coconut bar. They were crunchy and sweet and delicous. I'm sad I just now found them. My house mom has made delicous meals as well. Egg stew, vegetable stew and stir fry are some of her specialties and are all based in a red sauce and served with rice. A lot of oil is used in everything, so there is nothing healthy about any of those things. A very unique dish I've tried is Palaver sauce. It's yam leaves, which taste very similar to grape leaves, mashed into a sauce. That is a house favorite. Red red is a dish of beans that I enjoy as well. It is usually served with fried plantains. Although it's not safe to eat a lot of meat off the street what I've had at home has been really good. The seasoning used is really flavorful, but the thought that you may have just seen that chicken running around in the village is a little disturbing. That's also why I refuse to eat goat. Once I got past the initial shock of the cuisine I've been trying things that I never thought I would and I certainly haven't gone hungry. As my house mom says, a hungry girl is an angry girl.
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